Abbey Ridge Auto-Pilot Software

Introduction:

The Abbey Ridget Auto-Pilot (ARAP) software is a windows program that was designed to automate the operations and image processing at the Abbey Ridge Observatory. Having said that, it is based on ASCOM standards and therefore is compatible with many computerized telescopes, domes, ccd cameras, etc., and therefore should be useful to many CCD observers wishing to automate their equipment. If this interests you and you want to try it out yourself, contact me.

ARAP uses simple text-based scripts containing english-like commands, in effect creating an observatory language, that makes it very easy to control observatory functions. I call this language DTL (Dave's Telescope Language!). New capabilities are added as they are needed. A complete description of the ARAP language is here.

System Requirements:

• Windows 98, Me, 2000, XP, Vista, 7
• An ASCOM-compatible telescope
• An ASCOM-compatible dome (for dome capabilities)
• An ASCOM-compatible focuser (for focus capabilities)
• MaxIm DL/CCD V3.x or V4.x software (for CCD camera and image processing capabilities)
• A CCD camera (with or without filter wheel) compatible with MaxIm DL/CCD
• FocusMax focusing software (for autofocus capabilities - ASCOM-compatible focuser also required)
• PinPoint Astrometric Engine V5.x (for astrometric capabilities)
• A USB based X10 interface (for power control capabilities)
• WinSCP (V3.7.1+) secure copy software (for secure internet transfer capabilities)
• Info-Zip (V2.3) compression software (for ZIP compression capabilities)
• Script-FTP ftp scripting software (for FTP file transfer capabilities)
• A Boltwood Cloud Sensor and its "Clarity" control software (for cloud sensor capabilities)
• An internet connection (for e-mail and internet file transfer capabilities)

• Controls any ASCOM-compliant telescope
• Controls any ASCOM-compliant dome
• Controls any ASCOM-compliant focuser
• Controls any CCD camera compatible with MaxIm DL/CCD
• Autofocuses the CCD camera using FocusMax
• Built-in database including bright stars (by name), Yale Bright Star Catalog, Messier and SAC deep sky database (includes NGCs, many ICs, etc.), and the PGC galaxy catalog.
• Images batches of objects automatically
• Takes calibration frames (bias, dark, flat)
• Calibrates images
• Does kernel filtering (hot pixel removal, filtering, etc.)
• Solves plates and can sync the scope to the solved position
• Connects to a Boltwood Cloud Sensor
• Controls X10-based power control devices. These can be used to control the power of devices in the observatory.
• Sends internet e-mails from within a script. This feature could be used to provide status information as a script runs or to alert the use when errors occur
• Compresses groups of image files into ZIP format and can upload them to an sftp or ftp server
• Computes a variety of astronomical calculations such as positions of the sun, moon and planets, conversion from ra/dec to alt/az and vice versa, airmass, hour angle, sidereal time, etc.
• Does image combines (average, median, Sigma Clip, SD-Mask), but it also includes a custom noise-reducing, but photometry-friendly, standard deviation-based rejection combine method
• Does aperture photometry
• Can convert XY to RA and Dec and vice versa on an plate-solved image
• Can load databases of comets and asteroids and compute their positions and magnitudes
• Has extensive error handling capabilities
• Has variables, basic math functions, flow control, sub-routines, etc.
• Add your own commands to extend the language
• Build complex scripts using subroutines
• Can run external executable programs

Last Updated: September 22, 2007 for ARAP V0.45. Click here to go back to the ARO home page.